February is a great excuse to mix a little love with geography. We’ve created a shared ZeeMaps map, and we’d love for you to jump in! Click the map link, drop a pin on a place you love, and then post here in the forum telling us where you pinned and why that place matters to you. It can be where you live, where you grew up, somewhere you travel to recharge, or a place that has shaped you as a person or teacher. When others open the map, they’ll be able to see your pin and connect it to your story.
As you add your pin (Additions → Add Marker - Simple, input location and reason), navigate the map, and explore where others have posted. Reply to at least one colleague and ask a question you might also ask a student about that place. Geography gets a lot more interesting when it’s tied to real people and real stories.
ZeeMaps is also a powerful classroom tool that’s surprisingly easy to use. Teachers can create a shared class map and use it for quick exit tickets, weekly check-ins, or short writing prompts. Students can pin a place they love and write a few sentences explaining why it matters to them. That place might be Paris, France, a grandparent’s house, a local park, or a street corner in their neighborhood. All of it counts. What matters is that students are practicing geographic thinking, writing with purpose, and sharing their perspective in a visual, interactive space.
This works at just about any grade level. Check out this template to do it on paper. Younger students love seeing their pins appear on the map, and older students naturally start making connections between places, culture, movement, and identity. It’s an easy way to bring geography, writing, and connection together, and February feels like the perfect time to try it out.
Drop your 
, share the place you 
, and feel free to steal this idea for your classroom!
